It’s our fourth birthday this year – four years of providing a vital news service to the people of Harrogate and the surrounding areas.
We’ve come a long way since The Stray Ferret was first launched in 2020. Despite facing the challenges of a global pandemic, we’re proud to have not only survived, but grown.
To mark this important milestone and renew our commitment to the local community, we have an exciting announcement to share.
Following feedback from readers, we’re overhauling our website and app, presenting a cleaner, more intuitive experience – as well as introducing highly requested new features.
A brand new website and app
Launching in late spring, the new site and app will have a reader-friendly layout with images you can expand, notifications, the ability to share more easily and a better what’s on section that will allow local groups to post upcoming events for free.
Providing a platform for discussion is another priority, and for this reason a comment section under each article will be introduced, to encourage readers’ direct involvement in debate.
All of these updates aim to provide a better experience, and are a direct response to feedback suggesting these are changes you’d like to see. Unlike other online news organisations, we’ve always put the reader first – rather than covering our stories with pop-up ads, making them impossible to follow.
The Stray Ferret is also expanding its outreach and coverage, to offer a greater variety of content.
A sneak peek of one of the new sections of the website
A wider variety of quality content
With a greater emphasis on investigative features and an expanded lifestyle section, as well as exclusive offers and discounts, this will enable us to push on and enhance our offering to the local area.
What will remain a constant is our passion for providing quality journalism. Fundamentally The Stray Ferret was created to better inform people and over the past four years we’ve worked hard to achieve this.
In the upcoming weeks, The Stray Ferret has a series of investigative articles to publish, delving into the anti-social problems plaguing the Harrogate’s shopping district – a topic we believe isn’t getting the attention it deserves.
This series of reports has been months in the making and has involved direct input from members of the community, as well as diligent fact-checking and research by our journalists.
We also have a valued relationships with many local businesses, the culmination of which is the upcoming The Stray Ferret Business Awards, which promises to be a celebratory night recognising outstanding individuals and companies.
We always appreciate our readers’ feedback, and our fourth birthday is a good time to acknowledge the part you’ve played in supporting quality local journalism.
Thank you,
The Stray Ferret team.
